Big City Day (McRoll in the REAL World Story by Mari, Sammy, and Ilna)
by ilna
Summary: The gang describes their big city adventures. Part 9 of the 6th Annual McRoll in the REAL World Holiday Marathon.


**Notes:** _Welcome to part 9 of the 6th Annual McRoll in the REAL World Holiday Marathon. There will be a new story every day between now and January 3rd. (Though we retain the right to keep going until January 5th if we're having too much fun.)_

_Hope you enjoy it!_

* * *

_Big City Day (A McRoll in the REAL World Story by Mari, Sammy, and Ilna)_

"Elsa could make the stage light up with snowflakes! She made her whole castle! And her dress changed! Just like in the movie!" Joan had been regaling them all with a play-by-play of the musical since they'd arrived at the restaurant.

"It was a very impressive stage production," Aaron admitted.

"They even had Sven!" Joan continued. "I thought it was a real reindeer at first, but Mommy said it was a guy crawling around in a reindeer costume."

"Really neat, though," Mary said. "I'd guess he had some kind of stilts on his arms."

"How did they do Olaf? Was it a guy in a snowman suit?" Danny asked.

"Actually they had a puppeteer controlling Olaf and doing all the speaking and singing from behind the puppet," Aaron said.

"It was a little strange at first," Deb continued, "but you kind of forget part way through the show."

Elizabeth smiled. "The question we've been waiting to ask you, Deb, is how was the singing?"

"Excellent," Deb said without hesitation. "The actress playing Elsa in particular had a lot to live up to given the movie, and she was definitely up to the task. Real powerhouse voice on display with _Let It Go_. She definitely made it her own. Both of the leads sounded fantastic, and were able to capture the essence of their characters in their singing."

"High praise coming from you," Steve said, smiling at his aunt.

"And there were new songs!" Joan burst in. "Oh! And Elsa wears pants! When the bad guys are after her! And at the end there was paper snow falling on us! I saved some to show you." She turned to Mary who dutifully produced a small handful from her purse. "See?" Joan said, holding her hands out over the table.

"That sounds like the best first Broadway show ever," Grace grinned happily at the effervescent little girl who'd clearly had the time of her life.

"It was!" Joan looked at her family and nodded. "I'm definitely gonna keep the program and the … what's the other book, Aunt Deb?"

"A Playbill."

"I'm keeping them forever."

* * *

"And there were lions in front of the library wearing Santa hats," DJ demonstrated by holding his arms wide . "They were so big!"

"I got a pen for Miz Kristin in the gift shop," Jacob said.

"I'm sure she's going to love that," Elizabeth told him.

"I loved the double decker bus ride this morning, we saw so many highlights," Jess said as she placed her menu down.

"That was so much fun, and we got Nonna, Aunt Deb and Grandma Ang ornaments from a shop that we can put a group picture in," Grace told the others.

"I'm keeping mine up all year long," Deb said and wrapped an arm around Catherine who was seated to her right.

"Oooh Daddy look!" Joan pointed to a goblet in her menu. The gigantic, ice blue drink was smoking like dry ice and filled with blue rock candy swizzle sticks.

"Peanut, that's about three gallons of sugar," Mary pointed out. "For thirty five dollars. How about we order two and everyone has a taste?"

"That's a perfect idea," Jenna readily agreed.

"Definitely," Catherine said, as she settled Angie in a booster between herself and Steve. "Angie could swim in one of those goblets."

"'Wim?" Angie gave her a toothy grin. Noticing the ice cream sodas in the menu photo she patted it. "Ouse kweem!"

Tickling her tummy, Catherine gave her a kiss when she clapped. "After some food. DJ is having a burger, do you want one or do you want chicken nuggets?" She pointed to each on the menu.

"Chimken!"

"If you wanna try my burger, Angie, you can," DJ said with a smile at Dylan, who nodded his kudos as Steve and Catherine shared a smile.

* * *

"We all bought matching earrings," Kaitlyn said as she pushed her hair back to show her ears. "We got some for you, your mom and Aunt Deb," she told Joan as Catherine passed little boxes to all three.

"Ohh, they're so pretty," Joan hopped up to hug Kaitlyn and Catherine and blew kisses to the rest. "Thank you! Mama, can we wear them now?" she asked Mary who nodded.

"C'mere, peanut, let me help you," she said as she fastened the small silver discs to Joan's ears, then donned her own, as Deb did the same.

"I love them, thank you, darlings." Deb smiled at all the ladies' matching looks.

"We got some for Nonna and Grandma Ang, too," Grace added and Danny beamed at his daughter.

"Perfect, now you all match. La Famiglia."

* * *

"Tell them about the flight simulator," Danny prompted.

"It was the best!" Jacob enthused. "Uncle Steve wasn't even a little dizzy." He held his thumb and forefinger an inch apart.

"We went on a simulated training mission in a Transporter FX," Dylan jumped in. "It was pretty tight. It used 4D and computer graphics and film from real wars."

"D-Dawg and I rode together," Jadon said. "We flew a simulated Navy fighter jet. Pretty cool, even the anti gravity stuff when it's turning you all upside down."

"I rode with Jacob and Daddy!" DJ bubbled.

"Was it fun, sweetheart?" Elizabeth asked.

"So fun! Then when everybody got off we walked like this." He held a hand out and made wavy motions. "Not Daddy though. He walked like regular."

"Uncle Joseph did good, too, right, Cody?" Jacob confirmed.

"I held my own," he chuckled as both Cody and Dylan nodded. "All in all a pretty amazing day."

"And me and Jacob got these," DJ pulled a set of dog tags from under his sweatshirt. "See," he held them up. "They say DJ!"

Catherine smiled at Steve over his head and nodded. "Those look familiar."

"Just like you and Uncle Steve and Uncle Joseph have." Jacob held up his own tags.

Joseph smiled, tousling the boy's hair. "Just like us."

* * *

Nonna and Grandma Ang were seated comfortably in the living room looking at old photographs when the gang arrived home. After depositing their coats in the foyer the children spilled into the room excited to share the tales of their day.

"I saw Elsa!" Joan bounced with excitement. "And Sven and Anna and Olaf. And I met a new friend named Sophia who lives in Florida. And we saved some snow from the play and Mama has it in her purse!"

Nonna clapped her hands together. "Oh my, that sounds exciting!"

"And I got to ride a flight simulator and it was so fun but I was so dizzy when I got off." Jacob stumbled across the room in an attempt to demonstrate what it had been like. "And we ate at the coolest place. And we saw the tree and it was soooooooooooo tall."

"Pi-tty 'ights!" Angie said from her perch in Steve's arms.

"There were a lot of pretty lights on that tree, weren't there, baby girl?" he said.

Angie nodded emphatically. "Nonna, Gwamma Ang see," she said, pointing.

"We had some other tourists take a picture of us by the tree," Catherine said, showing Nonna and Ang the photo on her phone.

"Oh my, that is a huge tree," Grandma Ang said.

Nonna smiled. "It would have to be to get all of you in front of it in a picture."

"Everything was so big and there were so many people," DJ said. "It's nothing like home. We bought hot dogs from a man on the street with a cart."

Catherine smiled. "Daddy forgot to mention that little detail."

"What about you?" Grandma Ang asked Kaitlyn with a smile. "How was your day?"

"We had the best time shopping and we bought new earrings that match and we met a woman who had a St. Bernard and his name was Tiny. Isn't that funny?"

"My animal lover." Jenna smiled affectionately. "Most of the kids were excited by the tall buildings and all the people and Kaitlyn was on the lookout for dogs she could meet."

"We got to ride the subway and it was so tight," Dylan said, having long since abandoned his typical teenage attempts to appear unimpressed. "And we got to see what it's like to live on a submarine."

"And we got souvenirs for everyone back home," Casey said, looking at Jess who nodded.

"Yeah, Grace took us to this store that had NYC _everything_," Jess told them.

Grace, the city veteran of the group, beamed. "Phantom of Broadway."

"Popsockets and mugs and keychains and all sorts of stuff," Casey continued. "I think Kono's really going to like the shirt I picked out for her."

"You picked it out for her so I'm sure she will," Nonna said confidently.

Grandma Ang smiled happily. "It sounds like a wonderful day."

"We thought you might be hungry after all the excitement so we fixed a little post-adventure snack." Nonna said.

Danny grinned. "Of course you did."

"Why don't you all go fix yourselves a plate," Nonna continued, after giving him a knowing smile.

"But come right back after you get your food," Grandma Ang said.

"Oh my yes," Nonna agreed. "You all had a big day and we want to hear every word."

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed! Join us tomorrow for another story!**

_Find all our stories (in chronological order!) on our website: marirealmcroll dot wixsite dot com backslash real-mcroll_

_Or in the McRoll in the REAL World community here on fanfiction dot net_

_Find us on Tumblr: mcrollintherealworld dot tumblr dot com _

_You can still join our mailing list by emailing us realmcroll at yahoo dot com with Add me, please! in the subject line._

_And find Mari on Twitter at Mari21763 and add #REALMcRoller _


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